Interview: Dragon Age pen-and-paper adaptation explored

Bioware and Green Ronin Publishing are teaming up to create a pen-and-paper …

When it comes to RPGs in the video game industry, there aren't many developers better-known for quality than Bioware. Meanwhile, in the world of tabletop RPGs, one of the best-known publishers in the market is Green Ronin Publishing, famous for games like Mutants & Masterminds, A Song of Ice and Fire, and Thieves' World. As a result, it's not terribly surprising that EA and Bioware recently announced that they were joining forces with Green Ronin to work on a pen-and-paper adaptation of Dragon Age: Origins.

Of course, our inner Dungeons & Dragons geeks are rejoicing at this news. The dark fantasy setting for Dragon Age is an ideal candidate for a tabletop game, with a dystopian world that is unique enough to stand out from the environments of other fantasy games. But a few questions arise: why adapt a tabletop RPG from one of Bioware's games now, and why this game? A conversation with Dragon Age: Origins executive producer Mark Darrah sheds some light on the subject.

Unsurprisingly, it turns out that Bioware has been looking to break into the tabletop market for a while. "I think it was really what we've been looking into doing, with making our products becoming broader and turning into a full franchise." That comment about turning multiple products into franchises caught our attention, which prompted a follow-up question about whether or not Bioware was looking to adapt any of its other games for the tabletop market. "I don't know what the plans are for Mass Effect; I do know they're looking into broadening their audience, but I don't know their plans."

As a result, Darrah said that the company had a talented team working on the adaptation. Naturally, Bioware picked Green Ronin because, "[they're] one of the strongest Pen-and-paper RPG companies around and have had experience with dark fantasy settings in the past." Darrah himself is a fan of the publisher's work, and he admitted that he's involved with a Mutants & Masterminds campaign.

When asked about why Bioware decided to create this adaptation, Darrah explained, "One of the things that the pen-and-paper does... is that it gives you the opportunity to go off the beaten track. With video games, at the end of the day, there's no dungeon master there, so you can't look behind every door. With the pen-and-paper experience, we can present a game master with more breadth of the world and he can accommodate the player."

Not only will the adaptation allow gamers to experience a more freeform play experience, but it will also help flesh out the game world in more detail. "There will be a bit more detail on some of the parts of Ferelden that are presented but that you can't go to into the main video game," said Darrah. "You'll get a little more history in the pen-and-paper game."

Of course, Bioware is working with Green Ronin on the tabletop version of Dragon Age. According to Darrah, "We've been involved with the story and the broad mechanics, like 'these are the sort of powers and spells that exist,' but we're leaving the pen-and-paper mechanics to Green Ronin... there's been a lot of collaboration between us with the setup of the world and the high level vision and story that's being presented."

At the moment, both the video game and the tabletop version will have close release dates, though nothing specific has been announced. The pen-and-paper rulebook will hit stores in a box set, though no more details have been revealed. Players interested in the adaptation can check Green Ronin's official Dragon Age website for updates.